Russia

Trotsky in Norway: Exile, 1935=1937 (Russian Studies)

Trotsky in Norway: Exile, 1935=1937 (Russian Studies)

Language: English

Pages: 430

ISBN: 0875804748

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


From the moment of Lev Trotsky’s sensational and unannounced arrival in Oslo harbor in June 1935 he became the center of controversy. Although it was to be the shortest of his four exiles, this period of his life was a significant one. From Norway he increased his effort to create a Fourth International, encouraging his international followers to challenge Stalin’s dominance over world communism. In Norway Trotsky wrote his last major book, The Revolution Betrayed, in which he presented himself as the true heir to the Bolshevik Revolution, maintaining that Stalin had violated the Revolution’s ideals. His efforts to threaten Stalin from outside of Russia created international repercussions.
At first, Trotsky lived peacefully, without a guard and enjoying more freedom in Norway than he experienced in any other country following his expulsion from the U.S.S.R. Then, at the first Moscow show trial of August 1936 he was accused of being an international terrorist who organized conspiracies from abroad with the intention of murdering Russian leaders and destroying the Soviet state. Wishing to maintain good relations with its powerful neighbor, the Norwegian cabinet placed Trotsky under house arrest. Internment soon followed. He became the subject of political dispute between the socialist Labor Party government that had granted him asylum and opposition parties from the extreme right to the extreme left. In the national election of October 1936 the issue appeared to threaten the very existence of Norway’s first permanent socialist administration. After the election, the Labor government was determined to expel him. No European country would allow him entry, and when Mexico proved willing to offer a final refuge, Trotsky was involuntarily dispatched under police guard to Tampico on board a Norwegian ship.
Trotsky in Norwaypresents a fascinating account—the first complete study in English—of Trotsky's asylum in Norway and his deportation to Mexico. Although numerous biographies of Trotsky have been published, their coverage of his Norwegian sojourn has been inadequate, and in some cases erroneous. A revised and updated edition of Høidal’s highly regarded Norwegian study, published in 2009, this book incorporates information that has since become available. In highly readable prose,Høidal presents new biographical details about a significant period in Trotsky’s life and sheds light on an important chapter in the history of international socialism and communism.

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obtaining copies of documents from the Exile Papers of Leon Trotsky at Harvard University. Elena Danielson and the staff at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, were most helpful. Anita Burdman Feferman shared interesting background information about Jean van Heijenoort and Wexhall, where Trotsky resided for most of his stay in Norway. Special thanks to Acquisitions Editor Amy Farranto of the Northern Illinois University Press for her collegial work in bringing the book project to

elected as a Labor representative to the Oslo city council. In addition, he was a prolific writer, producing a large number of articles and books on socialist theory and labor history.40 His strongest bastion of influence, however, was within the Oslo Workers Association (Oslo Arbeidersamfund). Meyer was repeatedly elected as its chairman from 1921 through early 1934. But he gained the active dislike of the party leadership when he began to question the new reformist direction. On two different

also controlled the security service,216 Kristian Welhaven, wrote to his “dear colleague” in Paris, Pierre Mondanel, the controller general of the Criminal Police, on June 27. Welhaven enclosed the translation of an article that had appeared on June 24 in Fritt Folk (Free People), the new main organ of National Union, accusing Trotsky of having been actively involved in the French disturbances. Because Trotsky had been allowed to enter Norway, wrote the chief of police, under the condition that

insanity at the end of the war and escaped receiving a severe sentence, most likely the death penalty. 122 TROTSKY IN NORWAY relevant evidence from disappearing. The blatant political, rather than legal, nature of this maneuver was also exposed by his assertion that since there was every reason to believe that Trotsky’s supposed subversive activity had been conducted with approval of the government, Urbye was advised not to discuss the case with the Justice Department until verification of

accepted the challenge on the spot, which was most surprising. To serve Trotsky under the prevailing circumstances, with his client decidedly persona non grata in Norwegian society, was an undertaking that more career-minded attorneys would have avoided. But Puntervold did not hesitate. On Monday, August 31, he telegraphed Wexhall that he had agreed to Held’s proposal to use his legal expertise in order “to protect your interests in Norway.” He added, unquestionably to Trotsky’s satisfaction,

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